Friday, May 30, 2014

For five years, the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko was San Francisco's premiere venue for established and emerging cabaret artists. For its owners, life and business partners Rory Paull and Robert Kotonly, the Rrazz Room (now in New Hope, Pennsylvania and Coral Springs, Florida), was and is an exhilarating, exhausting labor of love.
I have known Robert and Rory for many years.
Although, we have never worked together, I have the utmost respect for what they have done for cabaret and are continuing to do.

They, not too long ago, took over Bob Egan's Cosmopolitan Room in New Hope, PA.
Tonight (May 30th, 2014), legendary vocalist Julie Budd opens for the weekend. This is in celebration of her latest album, They Wrote The Songs.

Robert and Rory share a moment on the stage of The Rrazz Room in San Francisco

Last night, Robert was rushing to be at Nicole Henry's show but he managed to squeeze me in to discuss where he has been, where he is, and where he is headed.

Today, I celebrate Robert Kotonly (as well as Rory Paull) and their bodies of "worth".
I began the interview by asking Robert if he was where he THOUGHT he would be at this point in his life.

He thinks that if anyone is asked that question (although we are focused on him today), he doesn't think there is one person who could tell me, "I am EXACTLY where I thought I would be destined to be."
Sometimes, it's better; sometimes, it's worse. Sometimes the minute or the day is good or bad and/or anything in between.
To answer my question, he is satisfied where he is in his life.

Rory Paull and Robert with Joyce DeWitt (Photo: Steven Underhill)

Is he where he thought he would be, he doesn't know.
He considers that a tough question.

Robert and his partner Rory have always been good in business.
For the most part, he knew he was going to run some kind of business at some point in his life. They ARE doing that and they are doing it well. He is proud of the work they have accomplished. He is still doing what he loves to do. That's presenting the best entertainment in the most intimate and well thought out venues. They have been doing this since 2000.

Prior to that, they had other incarnations of "Robert and Rory" in business. For the sake of my blog and its followers, today we are going to focus on the entertainment portion of their careers.

He is very happy to still be doing after all this time what he loves to do.
When Robert and Rory graduated school, they had a travel agency. That was at a time in which people actually used travel agencies! This was before the internet and the different ways that people now book travel. It was a great business until 2001, when 9/11 happened. 9/11 combined with the internet all but undermined the way that travel agencies operated. It got harder and harder to do what they were doing, but they always had a general interest in entertainment, especially Robert. They had some clients that they handled at their travel agency. One of the corporate clients they handled was the world famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

with Sally Kellerman

The gentlemen who was running the theatre at the time became very friendly with Robert and Rory.
He moved on to the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey.He always knew that Robert wanted to be a concert promoter and be in the business.He suggested to Robert that he try and do a show with his guidance. This would be a safe way to see how it goes. He might love it. He might not.

The first show they did was at Bergen PAC in 2000 was Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna's show, If You Ever Leave Me, I'm Going With You, which eventually went to Broadway.

Robert and Rory were investors. They sold out not one, but TWO shows. Robert admits to their naivete at the time. They did two shows back to back, a three PM and a seven PM show on a Saturday! They worked so hard for the success of that show. Robert doesn't believe there was one thing they neglected to promote that show.
Due to that home run right out of the gate, they thought that it was ALL going to be like that...always great and always wonderful.

Rory Paull (far right with glasses); Wesla Whitfield (behind table) and Robert Kotonly (with tie) at the Plush Room in San Francisco on March 7, 2007.

Anyone in show business will tell you much of it is wonderful, but not every day.
That is how they got into the business. That led to large concerts in major theatres. They decided to go to San Francisco. They had an opportunity to book the Bea Arthur's, And Then There's Bea, prior to its Broadway run, (Renamed Bea Arthur on Broadway - Just Between Friends). They presented it at the Alcazar Theatre for two weeks. They did very well. Not only did they have her there, they also presented Catskills on Broadway with with original stars Freddie Roman, Mal Z. Lawrence and Dick Capri reprising their Broadway roles. They also presented Donna McKechnie for a week.

They called the series, Summer at The Alcazar. Robert and Rory spent the entire summer in San Francisco and became friends with the then owners of The York Hotel where the famed Plush Room was housed with a huge history. They just didn't know if they wished to continue or not. The owners honestly told Robert and Rory that they didn't know anything about running a cabaret room.
Robert and Rory had the connections AND the enthusiasm to make it work. They were offered the room to book. That was how it started in San Francisco. They ran The Plush Room very successfully for three years and THEN, the hotel was sold.

The new owners wanted to turn The Plush Room into a restaurant. In order for them to raise the rating on the hotel, (this happens in the hotel world), a restaurant must be included. Robert and Rory had worked hard for three years and were not ready to shuck it all. They decided to take their skills to the next level. The next level was that they needed better capacity, a better sound system, better lights, and something closer to Union Square, if possible.
That's what they did.
They moved from the Plush Room to the newly formed Rrazz Room where they were for five years. Then they moved on to Live at the Rrazz. The reasons they moved from the Rrazz Room was not from a lack of success.
The space at the Rrazz Room had noise issues. There was sound leakage in the building.
The forces of the Universe were telling them it just wasn't working. It was just getting too hard.
That was the West Coast Chapter of their lives.
They returned home to the East Coast. They wanted to regroup and they had a lot of connections with theatres and venues.
Two places happened for them. They knew of Bob Egan's Cosmopolitan Room in New Hope. It was originally run by Bob, them someone else, and then it was dormant for a while.

They contacted the owners of the hotel, told them who they were, and that they were returning to the East Coast. Robert and Rory expressed interest in booking the space. In addition to this, Robert and Rory were dealing with the Coral Springs Center for the Arts in Coral Springs, Florida. Again, they were friends with the director of the theatre.

with Joy Behar and Judy Gold

He told them he knew about all they were doing, he had this beautiful space, but he didn't know if it would fit their needs.
He asked them to go down and see it which they did. It is the Coral Springs Museum of Art space.
It is an exquisitely beautiful space. They are now booking a season of talent in that space and they are converting this elegant museum into an elegant nightclub at night. Their last season ran December to April.
They did one show a month for the entire season. When they return, they are planning on doubling or tripling that schedule. They are continuing! They keep reinventing themselves to do what they love.

They are experts at branding. They have held on to the name Rrazz since they started. Rory is Robert's partner. Obviously, both names start with the letter "R". They combined that with the word "jazz", mulled it around in their heads, and voila! They opened the Rrazz Room under Rrazz productions and the rest is history.

One of the things that they do really well is getting a real gauge of where to best place the talent they book. They certainly get to know what talent will work in each market. Each market is a completely separate situation. Each one has its own personality.
What works one place may or may not work someplace else. There ARE certain people that are close to Robert's heart and he will try and get them booked.
There are many things that Robert loves about what he does. He says that he was the kind of kid who liked to dress up a bit and go out. He likes being with people. Running a nightclub, for Robert, is almost like hosting a party every night, especially when there are repeat customers.

with Petula Clark. Photo: Courtesy Rrazz

When they left San Francisco, part of his heart stayed behind. Not just because of everything they had done their professionally, but also, more importantly, because of the people they had become friends with. What Robert and Rory did mattered in those people's lives.
Robert is really proud of that and that is the main inspiration to continue.
Once there was a child in the audience in the Rrazz Room in San Francisco who was very ill.
His father wanted to take him to see an entertainer that he had loved so much as a kid. That entertainer was Davey Jones from The Monkeys.
Part of the nightclub experience that Robert loves so much is the intimacy of it.
They introduced Davey to the father and the son.

with performer CeCe Peniston. Photo: Courtesy Rrazz

Davey had them come up on stage with him and play the bongos as he played The Monkeys' hits. It was so touching and so wonderful and it made Robert feel so proud.
They had a hand in making this kid and this father having an experience that they will remember for a very long time. Those are the kind of things that make Robert really excited about what they do. Even people coming in from a bad day at work or a bad day in general and they forget about all that when they come into their space, it means the world.
There is a flip side as well. Sometimes, 150 % of one's energy has been put into a project and it is not what it was expected to be, sometimes for one reason or another, it doesn't work. Educated guesses have been made as to why something that you thought was going to be "through the roof" is not.
That, to Robert, is a little upsetting because he likes to be in control of the situation.

There are always extenuating circumstances, however, that sometimes takes away that control.
Robert came into this business in 2000, which doesn't feel that long ago, but when you look back, a lot has changed since then. When he and Rory came into The Plush Room and certainly The Rrazz Room, what they did that was instrumental in no small way, was open the window to the types of entertainers that were now being accepted into major clubs in the country. Diversity has certainly opened its doors in programming in some of these high end rooms. Robert does believe the Rrazz Room and every reincarnation since they have started has contributed to that.

They continuously pushed the envelope. His time is so new in New Hope that only time will tell of their success.

There are some artists that they have yet to book but they are very much in the same process of building success.
There were some major artists they booked in San Francisco that had been playing in San Francisco forever, but not in major venues.
Maybe they never would have had it not been for Robert booking acts like Vesta Williams, Miki Howard, The Blue Notes, Jerry Butler; these artists were not working in San Francisco or in most major nightclubs in the country.
They should have been. Of course, these venues book talent on how they can sell.
Sometimes people forget that there are other forms of entertainment that will work in the same space that is, historically, for a certain genre of entertainment. Robert and Rory were one of the first major clubs to book artists like Varla Jean Merman, and artists like Lypsinka, and The Kinsey Sicks and artists like that. Now, Robert sees, Thank God, because it's the right way, these artists are playing major clubs. There was definitely a line in the sand before. Robert and Rory certainly helped. That was the goal. That line is not so straight anymore. That line has kind of fizzled.

There is not so much of that line anymore. Entertainment has changed and it has become, kind of, more diversified and that is a great thing.

The greatest lesson that Robert has learned in this business is not to take things so personal. He admits that it is his personality to do so and sometimes "you just have to let it be."
That is not only in entertainment, but in everything. Being in this business, EVERYONE has to be a little thick skinned.
When Robert came into it, looking back, he admits that he was very naive and very vulnerable. All of those things that could get you in trouble down the line. He says he has to become a little harder, not in a bad way, but in a realistic way. What Robert's expectations are are not necessarily what someone else's expectations are no matter what the situation is.
Sometimes just let things be and not try to change them or make them better. Sometimes, they are what they are.

Robert and Rory are very excited about where they stand right now. They built something very special in San Francisco. He still gets emails from patrons and agents and artists who miss what they did there. That is all great and something to be proud of.
They are not resting on their laurels. What they desire to do is build something just as special in Coral Springs and New Hope and continue to just look forward. That is what is so wonderful about the world of entertainment. Every day, every month, every year there is new and exciting artists that need to be seen. If Robert and Rory can put beautiful new venues that respect that in cities that don't have that now, then he is really excited about that.
He is open to all possibilities. Something tells me that is going to happen!

Friday, May 23, 2014

I was lucky enough to see Ann Arvia as Meg in Damn Yankees a few weeks ago at The Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. Rush to see this production before it closes on June 21st.I was even luckier enough to sit down and talk with her earlier this week about the road to Damn Yankees (and a few other things as well!). Her are/were the greatest "influencers" in her life as far as creativity is concerned. For Ann, it is constantly changing. She is inspired by great actors. She is inspired by great art. Last summer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art had this phenomenal exhibit called Spines Collect. It was all of the paintings that the Spines family collected over the years. Ann sat down and pondered how to make THIS into a show. She has not found her way in yet, but it is still there on the back burner. Initially, it would be her voice teacher.She has studied with her for decades, Anne Perillo She is a phenomenal voice teacher back in Chicago. Ann studied with her at Depaul University. She is one of those "did it all" kinds of women. She was an opera singer. She did musical theatre. She did cabaret. She did voice over work. Ann desired to follow in those footsteps and do it all as well. She wanted to be able to explore whatever it was that she could do. What does Ann love the most about the theatre?She loves what she has learned about herself through roles. She loves the diverse people that she meets whose paths she wouldn't cross otherwise. She loves reaching at audience. What has she learned most about herself through her current role as Meg? Ann has spent the last decade playing an assortment of hags, harridans and teapots. Ann has transitioned into the role of old sage character roles.

Jerome Lucas Harmann as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Ann Arvia as Mother, and Larry Raiken as Tateh in Maine State Music Theatre, in Brunswick, Maine

Ruth Gottschall and Ann Arvia in Mary Poppins

She spent four and a half years playing the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins. That certainly was not a glamor role. She has also planned Miss Andrew, the bad nanny in Mary Poppins, again not a glamor role, shrieking and mean harridan. Don't get her wrong. Those are great roles to play and lots of fun including Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast. Ann has not played a "romantic leading lady" character role since she played Mother in Ragtime in 2002. Playing Meg has been a fascinating journey getting back in touch with that and being comfortable with that. When one reaches a certain age as a woman, there are asked to put their sexuality aside. People don't want to think about their moms having sex. Actresses go off and start doing other types of roles. They become sage women of wisdom, such as the Bird Woman or a teapot singing a lovely song. Being able to play a fully developed full fledgling three dimensional woman is fascinating to rediscover. Last summer, Ann appeared at Goodspeed in The Most Happy Fella. That was Ann's first time at

Goodspeed.Ann LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it up at Goodspeed. both professionally and personally. It is such a rare experience to have a month of rehearsals in a studio and then have basically a week of tech and three weeks of previews. Nobody does that anymore! Even with a show as vast and enormous as Mary Poppins was , they were in the studio for four weeks. Those rehearsals were not about exploration. They were about, "Here are the steps.Get the shape and THEN we'll move it into the theatre and space it out." At Goodspeed, everyone has the luxury of exploration. Sometimes, they may be going down a path that is not ultimately the "right" path, or what I saw as the final product on the stage now.Those paths are important in the discovery process. The actors learn things about their characters. "No, he wouldn't do that", or things about themselves as actors. "OK, I was willing to take that risk."

They may not have been willing to take those risks six months ago. THIS is a great process. They care very much about process at Goodspeed. The support staff is great as a theatre. Their production stage manager, Bradley G. Spachman, is quite phenomenal. Ann fell in love with the area last autumn. It was such a spectacular fall. It was like something out of a movie. Now, coming back to do Damn Yankees, Ann has gotten to experience all four seasons there. It has been beautiful.

Autumn in Connecticut Gelston House in East Haddam, CT Side Dining room View facing the CT River and the Good Speed Opera House.

Ann as Meg Boyd and James Judy plays her husband, Joe Boyd, Photo by Diane Sobolewski

That wasn't that important to Ann because Meg is oblivious to it all but it was fascinating to watch him and telling actors, "No, that swing isn't right", or all the other little nuances of the "game" aspect of the show.

The other thing that Ann really loved about working with Danny is that he is very game about allowing actors to take chances. There was one particular day in which Ann came into the rehearsal hall and said to him, "I have been thinking about this", and blah blah blah...He said, "OK. Let's try it." Ann sort of did a "double take" and said, "Really!?!?!". He said, "Yes. I never so 'no' to actors." They all learn something in the process. They may not do what happens in that process ultimately, but they all learn SOMETHING.

Damn Yankees, for Ann, was one of those rare shows that she had no frame of reference for. She, of course, knew the two big songs, Heart and Whatever Lola Wants. She had never seen the show. She thinks she saw the movie years ago when she was a kid. When the last two revivals were happening, Ann was in Broadway shows. She wasn't able to go see them. However, almost through Ann's entire career, people who did know the show, said to her, "When you're old enough, you're going to be a wonderful Meg." It was always kind of always there in the background as a show that she would eventually do. The fact that so many people said that to her, there was probably something to it. Ann knew that Goodspeed would be doing Damn Yankees this season. She closed Most Happy Fella on a Sunday. The following Tuesday, she auditioned for Damn Yankees. Meg is the complete opposite of Marie, the role Ann portrayed in Happy Fella.

Ann went into the audition looking as different as possible from the way that everyone had been seeing

At a table read with James Judy (Older Joe): Photo by Diane Sobolewski

her for the past three months. She went in in a beautiful dress and high high-heels and well done make-up and hair. She knew that she had to turn them around. A couple of days later, she had the job offer.
There is a lovely scene that takes place after Whatever Lola Wants that takes place on the baseball field in which Meg comes out to see the game and has an exchange with Joe. Meg loves the simplicity of that scene.
I was at the show on press night in which an interesting moment happened that set a tone for both the audience and Young Joe and Lola on stage.

Photo by Diane Sobolewski

There is a moment in which Joe lets his guard down for a nano second and he kisses Lola. A woman in the audience gasped audibly and said, "What!?!?!" Ann shared with me that that has happened on more than one occasion. It happens at least three times a week. People are so in Meg and Joe's court, they are so wrapped up that they literally will proclaim something out loud, whether it is "No!" or they gasp loudly or "Oh my God! Don't!"
Literally, it stops the show, as it did the night I attended, because the audiencestarts laughing that someone is so invested, which Ann chalks up to, "Job well done!"
Daniel Goldstein shared with me that that is one moment in the show in which he does mot like. For him, it's not in Joe's "character" to kiss her.
Ann agrees with that.
She thinks it is a desperation moment of "Well, let me try this out. If I'm going to be stuck with her throughout eternity, I guess I might as well try this." He has been so stalwart throughout the entire show. Being damned to hell, maybe he throws caution to the wind!
We have touched upon what Ann loves about Goodspeed. Another thing that she loves is the intimacy of that theatre. We just referred to it here, when people proclaim aloud. The intimacy of that space creates such an energy between the actors and the audience.

The New Amsterdam Theatre Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

It is kind of an astonishing thing to experience as an actor when they really feel the audience with them. Prior to doing Most Happy Fella, she spent ten years straight in Broadway houses where sometimes she would have a sense of that, but more times than not she doesn't just because of the size of the house. Mary Poppins played The New Amsterdam Theatre which has 1702 seats. There is also an orchestra pit in front of the stage. For the actors, it almost feels as if they are doing the show "in spite of the audience." There are moments when, obviously, the actors are aware of their laughter. During the curtain calls, the lights are a little bit more up in the house and you see their reaction. The actors are always aware of people sitting "out there in the dark".

Photo by Diane Sobolewski

At Goodspeed, the actors know IMMEDIATELY if the audience is with them. If not, it may just be how the audience is experiencing the show. Sometimes, it's the actors.
One of the issues that drives ME up the wall are cell phones and texting in the theatre. I asked Ann for her take on this.
There are too many experiences for Ann to innumerate. However, she says that that is a very rare occasion at Goodspeed.
When it DOES happen, it always feels like it is during the quietest most intimate moments in the show.
There's kind of nothing to be done. If an actor can, they kind of hold for a moment. Otherwise, they just press on and try to get the audience back. A cell phone going off jars the entire audience out of the experience of a play.
I asked Ann about her thoughts on those actors that break the "fourth wall" to address it.
Ann believes it is a very slippery slope. It absolutely depends on the piece and where the actor is in the piece. If an actor is doing a play like Hello, Dolly!, and the actor is playing Dolly Levi and the concept of the show is that the fourth wall is

Photo by Diane Sobolewski

constantly being broken down and the character is constantly talking to the audience, then MAYBE it can be addressed. For most other shows, it becomes dangerous because, particularly if it is late in the show, the audience is not seeing the actor as who they really are, but rather as the character they are portraying. For the actor to "suddenly" break the forth wall, it couldn't be done as the character, because it just wouldn't happen.
It becomes confusing for the audience. Maybe if one is a big star like Patti LuPone, they can "get away with it". People certainly don't allow their cell phones to go off "on purpose". It happens mostly after intermission when they have forgotten to turn their cell phones back off.

with Cass Morgan

They have gone out and checked their emails, made a few phone calls, called the baby sitter, they come back in and they forget to turn it back off.
Returning back to Damn Yankees, Ann has such love for the score especially since she kind of "discovered it" while rehearsing for the show.
It is so "of a time". Some of these songs are such little jewels. She believes, as do I, that their orchestrator Dan DeLangue did a phenomenal job, both creating the right sound to support what it is that the actors are doing as well as invoking the period and what the original orchestrations are. He "marries" all of those factors really brilliantly.
Ann Arvia, the actor, has a really difficult time in Near to You when the bongos come in, trying not to burst into a big smile. It reminds her of when she was a kid and those fabulous albums from the light fifties that her parents would put on the gigantic stereo in the living room in which was a stereo/TV console would be wafting through the house.

That one moment in the show gives her great memories.
When it comes to BOTH of her Joes, she feels she is the luckiest woman in show business. Meg's whole show is with those two men. She has a few moments with Doris and Sister, but basically, her entire show is with the Joes. She is so lucky that both James Judy and Stephen Mark Lucas are incredibly talented lovely human beings that they are.

Photo by Diane Sobolewski

They are each "so present". Ann doesn't feel she has ever been on stage with anyone more present as these men are and so in the moment. No matter what happens from moment to moment, they ALL shift together.Theatre is a living breathing thing and each night, sometimes it's a little different. Both of those gentlemen go with whatever happens. They are great "ballplayers" in their own right, they hit the ball out at the audience performance after performance and it is a joy for Ann to share the stage with them.
If Ann could sell her soul to the devil for one change in today's entertainment world, what would that change be?
There are so many, but if she had to distill it to one, it would be that producers would not be so afraid to

Photo by Diane Sobolewski

produce new material. There is such a love affair now with putting movies, TV series', and revivals on the boards, not that revivals don't have a place, they do. Ann would love some of that to fall by the wayside and that producers start supporting new creative endeavors. It is thrilling when it happens and so rare an occurrence now.
Ann always did musical theatre, even through high school and college. She studied opera in college, because that was in the day when musical theatre degrees did not exist. One either had to be a theatre major a music major. Ann was a theatre major with a music minor at DePaul University. Ann toyed briefly with the idea of going into the world of opera because she loves the music.

Angel Reda (Lola): Photo by Diane Sobolewski

It feeds her soul. She knew very quickly that those people were not "her people". She started out primarily as a singer. Her evolution as an artist has been marrying the acting with the singing. It was very different back when she started out thirty-eight years ago. The acting/singer was not really what it is today. Over the years, Ann has embraced the combination. It is really gratifying for her on this show as well as Most Happy Fella that so many of the lovely reviews that she has gotten have commented more on her acting than her singing. She feels, as a well rounded actor, it is very freeing to not be worried about her voice every second and listening to herself. She believes that is what plagued her in the early stages of her career. ""Was that note open enough" and judging her performance by each note she sang. Now, she is less concerned about that. At the end of the night, people aren't really going to focus on whether or not she cracked on a note if she was invested in the moment.

People aren't going to walk out and say, "Oh wow, it was really lovely but I wish Ann hadn't cracked on that one note at the end of that song." That's just not reality. It is so much lovelier as an artist to go out there and not be constantly monitoring herself. It gives her a freedom

Ann Arvia in rehearsal as Marie at Goodspeed. (Photo by Diane Sobolewski)

now that she never had when she was younger.
Ann shared a very interesting anecdote with me. When she was doing Beauty and the Beast, she had an "intermission talk show."
It was not unlike James Lipton's Inside the Actor's Studio. She would go through people in the cast and interview them. There was no greenroom at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre due ti its small size. The cast would congregate in "Belle's" dressing room and it was a way to get to know each other. She started developing her own five questions a la James Lipton's closer. Her favorite question was "If you couldn't do this, and if failure wasn't an option, what would you do?" I asked Ann what her answer would be. She would be a professional poker

The Goodspeed Opera House from the Connecticut River

player.
That's very much like being in the theatre. Every day is a gamble.
It gives Ann such incredible joy to see people turn out and support LIVE theatre the way they do at Goodspeed. The theatre would not exist without these audiences. So many of these theatres are dying around the country.
Go support your local regional theatres. Go even if it is once a month or every couple of months. There is no other experience like theatre anymore. Even movie going has changed. A lot of people no longer do "collective" experiences the way we used to.

Kristine Zbornik and Allyce Beasley (Photo by Diane Sobolewski)

Theatre and movies are kind of all that we have left of that. Movies are dying because everyone is watching them on Netflix. Even going into a movie nowadays, it wears Ann out!
People are talking at the screen and other assundry things. It is difficult to watch in spite of the people around you.
In the theatre, it is one of the last places we all go and experience something together and walk out in a different state from when we walked in.
Go see a LIVE SHOW! You have until June 21st to see Damn Yankees. Click HERE for more info.

Words and Music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross | Book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop | Based on the novel by Douglass Wallop The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant | Book Adaptation for the Red